Not With a Whimper, But With a Bang
Season Twelve Season Finale Preceded by: Season Twelve, Episode Ten: Blood and Thunder 'Followed by: ' Summary : Time has passed since the naval skirmish, and an act of some favorable god has made the pirates leave the party alone for the moment. Ashra tells Aether and Cicero that the pirates wouldn't even be an issue were it not for their rash actions, and that they've committed essentially the same offense for which the other Ashra is being suspended from office right about now. Since Cicero did not abuse his post as CFO, she does not move to suspend him from it, but she advises that Cicero should not be permitted to lead groups of the party and that Aether should not be considered for officer status until the two have proved their responsibility. : Leilah buys a small statue of herself to cast Contingency with, and offers to make spells permanent for party members if they can pay the EXP cost. Leilah herself wants Arcane Sight, Ashra wants Detect Magic, and Cicero wants Tongues, but nothing comes of it yet as the party is a bit tight on EXP. : Then there are greater matters at hand: that saving the world mission the party was supposed to be on. The party put their heads together and come up with as many ways as they can think of to track the people who might be behind the Awakening. Leilah wants to double-check Shiolay's records and look for patterns that he didn't notice over the phone. There's the perennial figure of Neax Hiss, who is still not someone the party really wants to engage in direct combat. Ashra notes that wormwood poison has already passed from the pirates to the neogi, but it might be of interest to see how it got under Port Nyasa. Leilah also suggests finding the djinni and seeing if they know anything. Semna offers that this would require a lot of legal property transactions which she might be able to trace. : Semna elaborates on the legal implications of the Futurium hoard: this would require either several major deities in collusion or a large conspiracy of mortals. It might be illicit, but there will have to be a paper trail of some kind for an operation of this scale. There would be issues of land rights and property law. If it was planned on another plane, however, her ability to research property will vary wildly depending on if it's an organized plane or a more primitive, feudal one. For the Southern Continent, she will need to head to Nyasa City. : Leilah and Ashra come up with all of the relevant end of the world ideologies that they can think of. Worshippers of Tiamat believe she will return to the Prime, bring about Io, then dragons will take over the entire multiverse. Ethan Dragonslayer might kind of believe that too, with more of a "if we don't stop them first!" flavor. However, the battle at Wroth's End probably set that plan back a bit. The god Orcus, a demon god of the undead (or possibly an undead god of demons) plans to raise an enormous army of the undead and conquer planes one by one. Some people believe that the ultimate function of Mechanus is to keep all of the other planes going, and therefore when it stops, so will everything else. Leilah double-checks with Anahita that Mechanus is still going now, as it did claim to have stopped after the Awakening. Kobolds also think their god is going to bring about the end of the world. Ashra asks Cicero about the Throne of Prime's views on eschatology. He tells her that they don't have a specific end of the world ideology, but that the Awakening would actually be a new beginning for true believers of that philosophy. : Someone has figured out how to turn on Goneril Frontline Eleven for the first time in a while, and he offers a diagram of the faultlines on the Southern Continent at Leilah's request. Ashra notes that the disaster was first reported in Port Fasco, and that Nyasa City and others were reporting horrible magical storms before anything was visible from the port of Port Nyasa. She traces the path of the storm and finds that it could have followed a Golden or Xenteroth's spiral. That's pretty cool as a party trick, but doesn't actually get them anywhere. : The party finally makes plans as follows: Avi, Aether, Semna, and Leilah will visit the Caliph for the first time in his timeline to show him the letter he and Leilah will have written and secure his assistance. The same group of four will visit the library in Nyasa City to look for mining property records from the appropriate timeframe. Ashra, Leilah, and Semna will visit Shiolay's office in Nyasa City to check over his records. Then Ashra and Cicero will track the spelljammer that arrived on the Sirius to see where it goes after that. : Avi Sends his intention to visit, and the caliph offers a warm welcome. The Thought is greeted by an honor guard of djinni, who lead it to the palace landing strip. Avi enters, flanked by Aether and Leilah, with Semna trailing behind. They introduce themselves and get through the standard formalities, then Avi explains that his visit is really about matters of great importance to both their nations: a coordinated magical attack on the entire world. He has Leilah show the caliph the letter she and he wrote him. He examines it and recognizes it as genuine. The caliph offers all the help he can give the party. They ask for letters of passage and to speak with his spymaster. : The spymaster is a strangely familiar man named Al-Serpenta, who had been masquerading as a carpet. He says that the one who'll know everything going on near Prospero is actually the spymaster of Prospero, a nasty man very good at gambling. He warns the party that this man is terrible to deal with, but gives Aether his contact information. The name of Havimil Gloriosa comes up, and he warns that the Gloriosa family is everyone's worst nightmare -- ties everywhere, power, money, and also insane and evil. Havimil was last seen at the graveyard raising undead, which earned him a spot on Tanaki's Wall. It's a rather low bounty, but Al-Serpenta considers the fact he's on there at all to be a triumph of Nyasan law. Aether presents the caliph with a beautiful spider-silk cloak. : The writs of passage get the team into the library, but then they have to pass the weapons check. Leilah checks her golf bag's worth of weapons, Aether hides her spider and a dagger, and Avimeus gets away with his ceremonial sword by insisting on the privileges of rank. The attendant doesn't even notice Semna's cane. : As a royal library, only high priests and kings may check out books, and only librarians may enter the stacks. Semna asks for mining records from the last year, and the pixie librarian says that that volume is missing. Avimeus notes that he's blatantly lying and has been paid off. Semna explains to the librarian exactly how much trouble a librarian would be in if that librarian happened to be paid off to lie about a book. She takes off her glasses to display her terrifying eyes. Avi and Leilah imply that the party might include Inquisitors, as well. The librarian is terrified, but sticks to his lie. : Aether has had Nyx weave bags of spider silk, and she reveals that Nyx is strong enough to grab the books, but she has to hide on the librarian to get through the force field. Only librarian's rings, kings' seals, and high priests' holy symbols allow passage through the library force field. Hopefully hiding on the librarian will allow Nyx through. : Semna gets up, pretends not to perceive Eleven, and runs into him. He doesn't understand what she's doing, but she manages to trip and topple him anyway. The resulting scuffle provides ample cover for Aether to plant Nyx. When the librarian goes back into the stacks, Nyx steals the books, and she rides a nearby librarian's robes out of the library. : The party regroups. Ashra, Leilah, and Semna set out to visit Shiolay. His office is fancy, with a beautiful half-elven receptionist who asks if they have an appointment. Ashra gives her name and says to tell him she's come to visit. The receptionist does so and large double doors swing open, revealing Shiolay in some pimp mink robes. He offers them seats and pours out some Harvest Eye '14, then asks why the visit. Ashra explains that Semna wants to be able to look for more patterns in the adamantium sale records. They agree to respect the proprietary nature of his records, and he allows Leilah and Semna to check over the records while he and Ashra catch up. : When they leave, Semna tells Ashra that the main purchasers have been the Black Hand Corporation. Ashra promises blood sacrifice storytime as soon as the whole party is around to hear it. Poking around in Coriander's little black book, Ashra discovers that the spymaster of Prospero is one of the only people whom Coriander actually owes money to. : Next is tracking the spelljammer. Ashra asks Leilah to figure out ways of concealing the ship. She does her one better and summons an invisible stalker, then scares it with a smile into agreeing to serve her by trailing the spelljammer and reporting on its movements every three days. Now there is no reason for the party to risk themselves directly. : Their initial objectives complete, the party decides to talk to the Prospero spymaster. Aether shares the name and location she was given: Jackos the Knowing, Elfwin Casino. Ashra freaks out at the name, finding it far too similar to Jackil the Jackal and the Jackos on Tanaki's Wall for stealing temple coffers. She has a terrible history with Jackil, and does not ever want to face him again no matter the magical or physical protection. The Elfwin Casino, too, is familiar. : After a while, the party calms Ashra down, and she agrees to go as an advisor, with Semna handling the actual interaction and Aether and Cicero as backup. Ashra suspects Jackos may wish to trade for information, which she can offer. : The four head to the given location and find a small, nondescript door. Semna opens the door and hears the cocking of a gun. She smiles and says hello. The door shuts behind her. : The party waits. Eventually she reemerges and asks for 11,000 gold reimbursement for the information she's purchased, which Cicero gives her. : Everyone regroups on the Thought. The invisible stalker gives its first report: the neogi flew up north to a small hamlet on the outskirts of Nyasa's Reach and went into a club called "Herniation Club". It was a very shady nightclub, and the bouncer can only be described as having whorls. : The party decides to look through the books Nyx stole. They have acquired the mining records for 1442. Most of the records are kobold companies buying from each other. The interesting listings are by "XYZ Holding" and "BLUE" purchasing small plots of land in a checkerboard, as though competing against one another. The land is zoned residential, and it seems that they're expecting to convince the government to rezone it and permit mining. Under "purpose" is listed "CRPM", which Ashra recognizes as "Complication Reduction and Prevention Minerals". : Semna bought the information that CorinthianBlue are the ones behind the futurium mine. They own most of the mine of Prospero. : Ashra asks Hannibal about CorinthianBlue. They're a new transport company, running mostly grain. They used to ship up to Malvont a lot before the war. They're free-spirited, and running a different business model than usual, doing a lot of work on spec. They're kind of chaotic, but they don't give off a malevolent vibe to anyone, they just seem very Corinthian. They moved into a lot of other enterprises after the Malvont blockade ended shipping there during the war. None of it was lucrative enough to matter to the party at the time. : Semna also has a name: Xavier Yamhill Zabrain Gloriosa, the patriarch of the family and the namesake of XYZ Holdings. The party puts together what they've heard on the Gloriosas: They used to be important on both continents, but they became very inbred and crazy. They're aasimars, distantly related to Vatislav. They've been living in the underbelly of society as usurers because the strict laws of the Forbidden prohibit money lending. They finance some really sketchy adventurers even by the party's standards. Only the youngest son, Havimil, is in Coriander's book. : Semna also has an address, on Eonwalk Lane in northern Prospero. It's the headquarters for CorinthianBlue. The party flies there to investigate and hopefully blow things up. This far north, magic won't even be suppressed. : On first examination, it's a pretty normal mining site: offices and supply rooms, and a really big pit. Leilah turns herself ethereal and goes around to scout. The buildings are all as would be expected. The pit is less so. It's really deep, and as she floats down she starts struggling against damage as her flesh begins to rot. Her immunity to diseases helps her but does not entirely protect her. As she descends, she hears a sound like many voices underwater, speaking incoherently. She looks at the wall and sees giant claw marks. When she's taken half the damage she can take, she floats back up, then casts Clairaudience to listen in on the sound. It does not change. : She looks into the office and pokes her head into the safe to read their secret records. The area has been in constant use for months, but the pit is new, and it's a major setback. They don't know a whole lot about it yet. : She returns to the ship and shares her findings. The sound and the claws don't quite make sense. Based on the claw spread, she guesses the creature is enormous, about 20 feet wide. It could be a gibbering mouther, or an angel of decay. After giving her briefing, she heads off to the library to find books of monsters in which to look the creature up. Ashra thinks the description of the sound reminds her of what the Mother's constant information would sound like to someone who doesn't understand it. If it were psionic, it would be on a power level with a huge old aboleth, but that doesn't match the information. The necrotic damage is something Ethan had mentioned; it could be really powerful necromancy, which does run in the Gloriosa family. : Whatever this thing is, it's going to be big and scary. Working together, Ashra and Cicero manage to manufacture six pipe bombs. : Leilah asks Ashra to come with her the next time. The two turn ethereal together with Leilah's spell and start floating down the magical pit. Ashra is a bit more vulnerable to the damage because she is not immune to disease; she becomes sick, but cannot smell the rot to get any worse. When Ashra hears the gibbering she realizes it's nothing like a gibbering mouther; these are the sounds a wraith would make in its sleep. (Ashra is, of course, an expert in the sleep habits of undead that do not sleep. : When the two get further down, Ashra hears Unholy Aura being cast with an Abyssal accent. Leilah announces that they are in deep shit if it has casting levels, and the two chain Dimension Doors back to the surface, then fly back to the ship. Leilah heads back to the library, then announces that the party is up against Orcas the evil demon-undead god. : The invisible stalker hasn't reported; Leilah Sends to it and gets the response that it was banished home, but the target was heading east. That could mean the spelljammer is heading right for the party's location. : Al-Serpenta also gets back to the party: the Gloriosas are calling in all their debts. They have all "gone to the mattresses" and "gone to ground". After some brief terminology issues with Ashra and Avi, who get that they're hiding but think they're either saving all their money in mattresses or copulating wildly (actual answer: gathering together an entire family, as for a siege), they thank him for the information. : So now the party just has to fight a god. Ashra wishes she knew exactly why they're fighting a god beyond "it was evil and there". Leilah asks her mother if it was meant to end here, and receives "Yes." Ashra prays to Ethan for help and receives a small bonus to her Fortitude save for the duration of the endeavor. : Buffs are bought and cast and traded like candy. The preparations make the Axiomate battle look shoddy. Ashra helps Cicero dig through party loot and bring out one of the old scrolls of Hero's Feast. Leilah gives the entire party a holy aura, protection and resistance from fire and necrotic energy, and good alignment for their major melee weapons. Ashra gives Stoneskin to herself and Leilah, and several party members buff all relevant stats. Aether and Cicero plan to make themselves larger with Cicero's Enlarge Person wand, then drop enormous rocks on top of it with Dimension Door. Ashra and Cicero rig the pipe bombs to the sides of the pit with trip-wires so that they will detonate when Orcas flies up. : It's evening when the party finally decides to strike. Aether sets off the alarms to clear out any workers who haven't run off yet. Ashra offers a prayer-like thought to her absent mother, saying she's done all she does for her. To her utter shock, she hears back: Make the world safe for us, forever and again. Her doubts vanish, and she becomes rather optimistic about the whole affair, to Leilah's slight annoyance. : Cicero and Aether drop a three ton rock into the hole. Everyone waits as it falls, too deep to even hear. After a few more tense moments, the pipe bombs detonate. Everyone drops back to the ground and gets off their final buffs. Aether casts Planar Web over the entrance of the pit, and Cicero enchants a rock with Magic Mouth to say "Rock on!" : Orcas bursts into view. He's a hideous demon wielding a strange staff and some kind of hammer. Everyone has to save against necrotic damage every round they're in his presence, but luckily Leilah's Protection and Resist spells soak it up easily. Orcas casts a Fire Storm. Ashra resists, Aether dodges, and everyone else takes some damage. Aether gets a bow to plink with, since she doesn't want to risk melee with him. Ashra bounces an Arcane Fire off his spell resistance. Avi shoots him with one of the Thought's five pounders from a safe height. Leilah, still buffing, warns everyone to save the really big guns for when he gets bloodied and grows stronger. : He turns to Leilah and commands her to die. She would drop to her knees, but as soon as the spell sets her HP to 0, her Contingency kicks in and casts Heal on her. Orcas is very confused as to why she isn't bleeding on the ground right about now. Ashra hits him with a Positive Energy Ball; he dodges, but does take some damage. : Cicero tries a couple of times to Disintegrate him, to no avail. Leilah tries to Banish him, again to no avail. Orcas raises up a rod with a skull on it and shoots out a shockwave explosion. Ashra cracks a rib. : Aether misses with her bow, Ashra's Positive Energy Bolt bounces off Orcas's spell resistance. When Avi shoots Orcas with the cannon again, however, he doesn't even dodge. Cicero grabs another rock and flies into the air. Orcas prepares something. Leilah hits him with Searing Light to see if she triggers his action, but that isn't what he's prepared for. The Searing Light works, but reveals that while Orcas is a god of undead and takes positive energy damage, he isn't actually an undead creature himself. : Orcas nearly kills Aether with his hammer, and she flees with Nyx. : Ashra takes Leilah's suggestion to see how the lantern works. She manages to coax some energy out of it, and gets a temporary +3 unholy bonus to her wisdom. The act doesn't feel good, but it doesn't feel bad, either; the sacrifice of souls is something fucked up enough that even Ashra doesn't usually like it. The lantern is noticeably dimmer, though. : Leilah casts Fire Shield and moves closer. Orcas tries to cast Greater Dispel Magic on her, and she has a moment of triumph as her Ring of Greater Counterspells functions for the first time since its purchase for the Axiomate fight, countering the spell and preserving all her buffs. : Ashra bounces an Arcane Fire off of Orcas's hide. Cicero tries to spring attack with his new enormous rock, but finds out what Orcas had prepared: it's now impossible to fly over him. He decides to jump out of the way sans rock, however, and the boulder smacks into Orcas. : Leilah swoops down, sword drawn, and enters melee with Orcas. Ashra offers her a choice of healing or flanking, and Leilah takes flanking. Ashra, who is unable to damage Orcas without a lot of luck, instead settles by his tail, threatening him with her tentacles to give Leilah the flanking bonus. Leilah and Orcas trade blows as Cicero locates another rock. Leilah's Holy Aura and Orcas's Unholy Aura make each strike risky for the attacker; Orcas is not blinded, but Leilah takes some Strength damage. She also gives Orcas a nosebleed and believes that the party fears her. : Orcas casts Blasphemy and pierces Leilah's SR but not Ashra's. Leilah is dazed. Her Holy Aura should have blinded Orcas, but he uses a Hero Point to negate it. Ashra taunts Orcas to attack her instead. He turns around and hits her with his hammer repeatedly, bloodying her. He uses its final Hero Point against the Holy Aura Leilah put on Ashra. He also slams Leilah with his tail, knocking her out of the air. Her weapons fall from her hands. : Ashra needs to get a Heal to Leilah and get herself either safe or healed as well. Her first thought is to tumble around to Leilah and Dimension Door the two to safety so they can heal themselves while Cicero takes a turn at melee. Unfortunately, Leilah has made herself larger with Righteous Might, and her weapons are too heavy for Ashra to lift. Instead, Ashra carefully tumbles and flies around Orcas, casts Heal on Leilah from a scroll, and Dimension Doors herself to safety eight hundred feet above the battlefield. : Cicero swoops down and strikes Orcas with a spell-filled sword. Orcas is bloodied. He tries his death ability on Leilah again, and it fails. Leilah quickly recasts Greater Dispel Magic into her ring as Orcas beats on Cicero with his hammer. Ashra heals herself. : Orcas disappears, probably into a building. Ashra sets the nearest wooden building on fire with a Molotov cocktail, more because she can than because it's likely to help. Orcas is immune to fire and does not need to breathe, but might have difficulty seeing through smoke, and would probably take damage if the building started actually collapsing on him. : Leilah cures herself while Cicero looks for a place to drop his rock. From somewhere, Orcas tries to Greater Dispel Magic Leilah again, and does not beat her spell resistance. Ashra yells loudly that she thought he was supposed to be hard to kill but she guesses he's dead, hoping to provoke him. She notices the spelljammer from the Sirius approaching. : Orcas bursts out from the building Ashra set on fire. Leilah smacks him as he passes by. He tries to use his legendary wand, but fails. Ashra successfully hits him with Arcane Fire, and Avi shoots him with another five pound cannon. Leilah takes all her attacks on him. He's very close to dead. : Cicero hits him with the rock. Leilah attacks with her sword again, but misses. Ashra tries to use her psychic intimidation ability, but he isn't affected. After that fails, she tries her last Arcane Fire. : It hits, and his body explodes in a burst of pure energy as he is forced back to his home plane. Everyone survives, if only by a thread, and Ashra floats down in slight shock at having actually gotten the kill. : There comes a shout from the spelljammer: "Gloriosa, you have betrayed me to the god-lovers!" : Leilah takes that as a sign things are about to go poorly. She casts Mass Heal so no one is relying on buffs to live, then the party grabs Orcas's treasure and beats a hasty retreat. : As they are running, Ashra hears her mother's voice again: : Welcome home. Season Twelve Complete. Category: Episodes Category: Season Twelve Episodes